Apparatus, system and method for selecting a stream server to which to direct a content title

ABSTRACT

A method of selecting a stream server of a plurality of stream servers to which to direct a content title, by (a) evaluating a cache ease-of-entry for each of a plurality of levels of a cache hierarchy for the plurality of stream servers; and (b) selecting the stream server from the plurality of stream servers to receive a content title, the selected stream server having a most favorable cache ease-of-entry over the plurality of levels of the cache hierarchy; (c) if none of the plurality of stream servers has a most favorable cache ease-of-entry over the plurality of levels of the cache hierarchy, selecting a stream server of the plurality of stream servers with a lowest miss traffic to which to direct the title; and (d) if none of the plurality of stream servers has a lowest miss traffic, selecting a stream server of the plurality of stream servers with a lowest stream traffic to which to direct the title.

PRIORITY

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 121 as a DIVISIONAL ofU.S. application Ser. No. 12/272,773, filed on Nov. 17, 2008.Application Ser. No. 12/272,773 claims priority under 35 USC 119 to U.S.provisional Application No. 61/003,795 filed on Nov. 19, 2007.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to serving of media streams over a datanetwork.

BACKGROUND

The efficiency of an on-demand streaming system may be measured by itseffective use of server, storage, and network resources; its ability toscale those resources to meet growing demands in as close to a linearrelationship as possible; and its ability to predictably meet streamingdemand with as few disruptions or denials of service as possible. Forexample, such a system may minimize the replication of content storageexcept as specified by redundancy and reliability requirements or toincrease overall efficiency through caching; minimizing cache resourceswhile maximizing the effective efficiency and scalability of thoseresources; balancing the overall streaming load across multiple servers,when scaled, to match their respective capacities and provisioning;optimizing usage and efficiency of network elements interconnectingsystem elements or connecting to outside infrastructure; and maximizingpeak utilization of all of these resources, across a range ofscalability, while minimizing disruptions or denials of media streamingrequests.

A shared global cache in a multi-node stream server is facilitated bythe provision of a high-speed back-side network that interconnects thenodes together in such a way that any node may access the content cachedon any other node at bandwidths sufficient to support the full streamingcapacity of the server.

An advantage of a shared global cache is that only one copy of any givencontent ever needs to be stored in the collective cache memory of allthe nodes. The content stored in any individual node's cache memory isunique to that memory and is not replicated on any other node's cachememory. As a result, the cumulative cache memory of all the nodestogether comprises, and behaves as, one effective monolithic cache. Thelarge collective size of the global cache, combined with its total lackof content replication, maximizes caching efficiency, as measured by thecache hit rate.

A global cache is especially effective if independent content files,volumes, or other logical storage entities are fractured into smalluniform-sized blocks and mapped in a striped fashion across all thecache memories of all the nodes comprising the global cache. Thisarrangement ensures a balanced access load across all the nodes andtheir interconnecting back-side network, no matter what the contentaccess pattern.

A well-designed shared global cache has three main characteristics: 1) ahigh-speed back-side interconnect that facilitates shared access to allthe cache content; 2) unique content at every node; and 3) balancedaccess load to and from all nodes. The first characteristic would appearto uniquely enable the second and third. The high-speed globally-sharedinterconnect enables globally-shared unique content and balanced stripedcontent.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, the same reference numbers and acronyms identifyelements or acts with the same or similar functionality for ease ofunderstanding and convenience. To easily identify the discussion of anyparticular element or act, the most significant digit or digits in areference number refer to the figure number in which that element isfirst introduced.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an embodiment of a stream-switched videoserver farm architecture.

FIGS. 2-4 are flow charts of embodiments of stream direction proceduresproviding load and cache management in a stream-switched architecture.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

References to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” do not necessarilyrefer to the same embodiment, although they may.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of“including, but not limited to.” Words using the singular or pluralnumber also include the plural or singular number respectively.Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below” and words of similarimport, when used in this application, refer to this application as awhole and not to any particular portions of this application. When theclaims use the word “or” in reference to a list of two or more items,that word covers all of the following interpretations of the word: anyof the items in the list, all of the items in the list and anycombination of the items in the list.

“Logic” refers to signals and/or information that may be applied toinfluence the operation of a device. Software, hardware, and firmwareare examples of logic. Hardware logic may be embodied in circuits. Ingeneral, logic may comprise combinations of software, hardware, and/orfirmware.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that logic may be distributedthroughout one or more devices, and/or may be comprised of combinationsof instructions in memory, processing capability, circuits, and so on.Therefore, in the interest of clarity and correctness logic may notalways be distinctly illustrated in drawings of devices and systems,although it is inherently present therein.

Overview

An on-demand media streaming system in accordance with the principlesdescribed herein may comprise multiple distributed “parts” or“nodes”—servers, sub-systems, and/or elements. These nodes may behave asgenerally independently-acting members with locally-controlledresources, and are to be distinguished from tightly-clustered systems inwhich member servers, sub-systems, and elements share or have easyaccess to each others', and/or centrally-controlled, globally-sharedresources. An on-demand media streaming system in accordance with theprinciples described herein may 1) place content titles, and 2) directstream requests, to various nodes of a distributed system in such a wayas to optimize system resources (content storage, cache, server,network) as well as minimize unexpected service denials.

Unlike a shared global cache, the cache memory in an individualstreaming server of a distributed architecture without a backsideinterconnect is strictly local, in that the video content stored in anindividual server's cache may only be used for streams driven directlyfrom that server. It is not shared by, nor accessible by, any otherserver. There is no high-speed back-side interconnect to enable sharedaccess.

To improve the cache efficiency in distributed architectures, one shouldaspire to maximize the uniqueness of the content at each streamingserver, and balance the load across all the streaming servers, withoutbuilding a high-speed back-side interconnect to cluster them together.

If a system of local caches may be managed such that most or all of thecontent on any of the local caches is unique to that local cache, i.e.its content is not replicated on other local caches, the overall cacheefficiency of the system may be similar to that of a global cache. Thisis because the effective size of the overall system cache is thecumulative amount of unique content stored in the caches. If the amountof unique content may approach the combined total size of all the localcaches, then the cache hit rate will correspond to that total size, justas it does for a global cache.

Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Content

One embodiment of a distributed streaming system might spread thesystem's entire content library heterogeneously across all the nodes ofthe system, with no recourse or access to a central library storage,such that the content storage on each of the nodes is primary storage,part of the overall primary library. The placement/arrangement/layout ofthe library content dispersed to these various distributed nodes affectsthe efficiency and balance of the system in exactly the same way as thedistributed cache described above, even though the storage within a nodeis primary storage and is not a cache per se, and even if the nodecontains no other cache per se. Any node's portion of a primary contentlibrary that is stored across a distributed array of nodes may be viewedas a “cached” portion of that library. Mechanisms to optimize efficientplacement of content at that node or to optimize streaming efficiencyfrom that node's content may be equally applicable to that node whetherthe content stored there is a portion of a primary library or a cachedcopy of a portion of a primary library.

In addition, if a node includes both primary content storage as well ascache storage (caching the primary storage located on the node), themechanisms and algorithms utilized to optimize efficient use of theheterogeneous primary storage will also optimize the efficiency of thelocal cache and overall efficiency of the system-wide totality of cache,because uniqueness of cache content and balance of streaming load may beoptimized.

If primary library content is copied in its entirety, or even “mostly”i.e. with a high degree of replication, to each of the nodes in adistributed system, this content distribution is considered to behomogeneous in that every node has easy access to all (or mostly all)the library's content. In this situation, the primary content storage isnot particularly efficient from a storage resource perspective becauseof the high degree of content replication. However, any additional cachestorage associated with these nodes may still be made to be efficient byapplying mechanisms and algorithms that minimize replication of contentin the caches of the nodes across the system. For example, the judiciousdirecting of stream requests to different nodes may ensure that thecontent sourcing those actual streams is unique to, and uniquely cachedby, independent nodes; and that the streaming load is still spread asevenly as possible across the array of participating nodes. In otherwords, the overall system cache is efficient because the “active”content of each node is unique, even though the total stored content ateach node, including its “inactive” content, is not unique.

Hierarchy

A distributed streaming system that includes, or is connected to, acentral library server (or any library server commonly accessible tomultiple distributed nodes) is considered hierarchical. Most or all of acommon library, whether it be central, regional, or local, is stored atthe central server, while portions of that library may be stored ascopies in one or more of the nodes of the distributed system at the“edge”. These stored portions (group of selected “titles” from thecentral library), considered singly within a node or collectively acrossan array of nodes, comprise a cache and may be optimized in the same wayand with the same mechanisms and algorithms as the cache structuresdescribed above. In addition, a hierarchy may comprise more than twolevels and similar optimization approaches may be applied at multiplelevels.

Note that multiple levels of hierarchy may exist within a singledistributed node, including some of the examples given in the sectionabove about heterogeneous and homogeneous content. It is possible forall the levels within a streaming server (node) to be cache levels.These may sometimes be referred to as a multi-tiered cache. Multi-tieredcaches may also span across both internal and system tiers of hierarchy.

Architectures

A content distribution system in accordance with the techniques andprinciples described herein may 1) place content titles on, and 2)direct stream requests to the nodes of a distributed system for optimumsystem efficiency. There are multiple architectures within which theplacement of titles and the directing of streams may be accomplished indiffering ways:

In a fully-directed approach, control software directly places selectedcontent on specific nodes; directs stream requests to nodes of a systembased on the content residing at the various nodes and the currentstatus of the nodes; and migrates or re-distributes the content on thenodes based on recent behavior of the streaming load and/or contentprofile. If a content title requested for streaming does not reside onany of the nodes, or none of the nodes may successfully source thestream (e.g. all nodes are fully busy), the request may be denied, or itmay be “streamed-around” an edge node by a central server (if it existsand the network may handle it). The control software manages the contentplacement, caching efficiency, and streaming balance by directlyplacing, moving, and deleting content and directing streams.

In a pull-through approach, control software (the “stream director”)merely directs a stream request to a specific node, which then plays thecontent if it resides on the node or else “pulls” the content from acentral library (or other library up the hierarchy) into the node toplay it and possibly store it (e.g. store it in cache if its popularityfactor is high enough). If none of the nodes in the array maysuccessfully source a requested stream (e.g. all nodes are fully busy),the request may be denied, or it may be “streamed-around” an edge nodeby a central server (if it exists and the network may handle it). Thecontrol software manages the content placement, caching efficiency, andstreaming behavior indirectly by choosing where to direct streams. Itmay also selectively place content, especially new titles, based onmetadata or other logic. It may also selectively delete content.

In a look-aside architecture, control software directs streams to thelowest level of storage in the hierarchy (system and/or internal nodestorage hierarchy, as visible to the control software) that contains therequested title, causing it to stream-around any levels that are lowerstill. A lower level of storage (i.e. cache) will swap-in a title, bydirection of its own local cache manager or by higher-level controlsoftware, when the popularity of the title surpasses a threshold ofpopularity for that level (e.g. the popularity factor of theleast-popular entry in the cache).

Note that multiple storage levels may exist within the node, outside thenode, or spanning across the internal-node-to-external system boundaryand that some levels of storage may be directly managed while otherlevels may be indirectly managed via pull-through or look-aside. Forexample, control software may directly manage content stored in a nodeas primary content or as a large top-tier cache stored on drives, whilethe lower-tier RAM cache may act as pull-through or as an independentlook-aside cache mechanism; or, control software may directly replicatesome of the content on multiple nodes, but maintain unique “active”content as much as possible merely by way of judiciously directingstreams among the nodes (see Replication, below).

In any of the above architectures, choices about content placementand/or streaming locations are made based on system and node statusand/or recent content access profiling (e.g. to determine most popularcontent titles). Mechanisms and algorithms are applied to optimize theresulting system behavior, capacity, and resource utilization.

Replication

In addition to meeting requirements that may exist for redundancy,content titles may also be replicated on more than one node in adistributed system so as to increase efficiency or flexibility whenchoosing which node will stream a given request. Replicated titles willof course reduce the uniqueness of content and thus potential storageefficiency of a node or storage level, whether that storage is cache orprimary storage. A trade-off may be made in favor of overall systemefficiency, capacity, or provisioning of other resources at the cost ofadditional storage. For example, a random distribution of content titlesacross an array of nodes, without any replication, may result in someprobability of stream denials when trying to load the system at peakstreaming capacity; yet by replicating the 10 or 20 most popular titlesat every node the probability may be cut substantially. Even though sometitles are replicated across multiple nodes, streams may be directed insuch a way as to maximize the uniqueness of all the “active” content—inother words, streams for a given replicated title might be directedexclusively to one node except and until load balancing requires thatsome of those streams be directed elsewhere, and even after that, apreference might be maintained for just one or a small subset of thetotal nodes storing that title.

Methods and algorithms controlling the placement of content anddirecting of stream requests may include accommodation for replicatingof titles across one or more of the nodes of a distributed system.

Parameters and Metrics

There are several parameters and metrics that may be used in makingalgorithmic decisions about content placement and stream direction.These include, but are not limited to, storage utilization, streamingcapacity utilization, cache hits & misses, hit rates and/or miss rates,network traffic utilization, title popularity counts or statistics,bandwidth utilization of a storage array, cache ease-of-entry metrics(e.g. the popularity factor of the lowest or highest cache entry),per-title metadata or history, overall content profile or popularitysort, per-node configurations, system size (# of nodes), pre-determinedthreshold definitions of “full”, “popular”, etc.

These and other parameters may be used in various different algorithmsand based on differing time domains and sampling periods.

Exemplary Systems and Techniques

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an embodiment of a stream-switched videoserver farm architecture. Various components of FIG. 1, for example thestream director 109 and/or video servers 104, 110, 112 may compriselogic to carry out all or portions of various procedures describedherein. The architecture includes, but may not be limited to, globalcontent storage 102, video server 104 with local video server cache 106,video server 110 with local video server cache 111, video server 112with local video server cache 113, a frontside switch 108, and a streamdirector 109. Other elements and/or couplings among the elements havebeen omitted as they would be apparent to skilled practitioners in therelevant art(s).

The global storage 102 is a centralized content storage location, suchas, for example, one or more RAID farm, server cluster, or hybriddisc-solid state storage facility. The video server 104 is a contentcaching and stream serving data processing device, such as, for example,one or more computing systems with appropriate logic forhigh-performance media streaming. The video server 104 (and likewisevideo servers 110, 112) retrieve content from global storage 102, cachesat least a portion of the content in local cache facilities 106, andstreams the content to the frontside switch 108 in response to requeststo view titles.

The local video server cache 106 is a caching of content served by videoserver 104, such as, for example, one or more various types of volatile,fast, random-access memory technologies known in the art (likewise forlocal caches 111, 113). The frontside switch 108 switches streams fromthe video servers 104, 110, 112 to downstream destinations, such as, forexample, one or more local customer geographies served by one or moreHFN (hybrid fiber-coax node).

The stream director 109 assigns stream requests to the appropriatestream server, which obtains the stream either before streaming begins,or on-demand as streaming progresses, from global storage 102. Thestream director 109 also controls frontside switch 108 to route thestreams to the appropriate destination.

The stream director 109 may comprise one or more one or more computingsystems comprising logic to carry out procedures as disclosed herein.Other examples and/or embodiments of a global storage 102, video servers104, 110, 112, frontside switch 108, and stream director 109 may beapparent to skilled practitioners in the relevant art(s).

FIGS. 2-4 are flow charts of embodiments of stream direction proceduresproviding load and cache management in a stream-switched architecture.

Definitions:

The “global pool” of servers is the aggregate collection of serverssharing a front-side switch or network.

A server is “least-busy” or “most-busy” based on its streaming load (in% of its own streaming capacity, i.e. not necessarily in absolutestreams or sessions) compared to that of other servers.

A server is “full” if its streaming capacity, or other criticalresource, is saturated (potentially incapable of adequately handling anadditional stream).

A title is “novel” if it has no preferred server.

A title is “familiar” if its preferred server is not “full”.

A title is “crowded” if its preferred server is “full”.

“migration” is defined as the changing of a non-empty preferred serverfield from one server to another.

“Miss traffic” is the bandwidth required to pull in title content forstreaming when that content is not in the cache. The “least misstraffic” server is the server that currently has the lowest rate ofcache misses, and thus the lowest demand (percentage-wise) on itsincoming network port or cache tier interface.

“Cache tiers”: It is sometimes advantageous to have more than one levelof cache. A multi-tiered cache may comprise two or more cache layers,each one with different characteristics, for example in type of memory,speed of memory, storage capacity of memory, and/or cost of memory.Engineering analysis may use cost-performance and other factors to makeprovisioning trade-offs across the different cache tiers to determinethe most advantageous provisioning mix among them. For the purposes ofthis description, the lowest tier of cache may be viewed as the tier“closest” to the streaming IO of the server. It tends to be the smallestbut fastest of the cache tiers and would generally contain the mostpopular content, which may be a subset of the content in the next highercache tier, with the top cache tier generally being the largest andslowest and often containing a superset of the content within the lowertiers of cache.

“cache ease of entry” is a measure of how much streaming activity isrequired of a title or block of streaming content, to make itsufficiently active to replace the next replacement entry of the cache,which is likely to be defined as the lowest-activity title or blockcurrently in the cache. For example, if there is a popularity metric foreach entry in a cache, the ease of entry for that cache is the lowestpopularity metric value of all the entries.

“preferred server” of a given title is the server that is preferred tosource future streams for that title. Any one or number of parameterscould be sampled to determine which server should be preferred for atitle, including current title storage location(s), current serverstreaming loads, miss traffic, network loads, cache ease-of-entry, cachehit-rate, server content capacity load, title history or metadata, etc.

Referring to FIG. 2:

Actions:

If all servers in the “global pool” are “full”, reject any streamrequest; otherwise, perform one or more of the following actions. (202,210)

Direct a stream requesting a “novel” title to the least-busy server inthe global pool; this server now becomes the requested title's“preferred server”. (204, 212)

Direct a stream requesting a “familiar” title to the title's preferredserver. (206, 214)

Direct a stream requesting a “crowded” title to the least-busy server ofthe global pool. (208, 216). This server becomes the title's newpreferred server, i.e. the title has “migrated” to that server.

Referring to FIG. 2A:

Actions:

If all servers in the “global pool” are “full”, reject any streamrequest; otherwise, perform one or more of the following actions. (202,210)

Direct a stream requesting a “novel” title to the least-busy server inthe global pool; this server now becomes the requested title's“preferred server”. (204, 212)

Direct a stream requesting a “familiar” title to the title's preferredserver. (206, 214)

Direct a stream requesting a “crowded” title to the least-busy server ofthe global pool. (208, 220). This server does not become the title's newpreferred server, i.e. the title is not “migrated” to that server.

The cache behavior is generally more effective/efficient if theselection of the preferred server doesn't thrash (change often). The“crowding” of a title is potentially temporary, and the requested titleisn't necessarily a major contributor to the crowding, and the cache hitrate for that title may be diluted and have to be re-established onanother server if the preferred server for the title is thrashed. Thus,in some embodiments the server preference, once established, remains inplace until it is reset/cleared, after which a new request for the titlewill select a new preferred server by the established method for a new(e.g. ‘novel’ title).

Referring to FIG. 2B:

Actions:

If all servers in the “global pool” are “full”, reject any streamrequest; otherwise, perform one or more of the following actions. (202,210)

Direct a stream requesting a “novel” title to the least-miss-trafficserver in the global pool; this server now becomes the requested title's“preferred server”. (204, 222)

Direct a stream requesting a “familiar” title to the title's preferredserver. (206, 214)

Direct a stream requesting a “crowded” title to the least-miss-trafficserver of the global pool. This server does not become the title's newpreferred server, i.e. the title is not “migrated” to that server. (208,224)

Referring to FIG. 3:

Direct a new title to the server first meeting the followingconsiderations in order:

streaming capacity is not “full” and network bandwidth capacity is not“full” (302)

from servers equal in all of the above, choose the server whose top-tiercache ease-of-entry is better than that of the others; otherwise, (304)

from servers equal in all of the above, choose the server whosenext-lower-tier cache ease-of-entry is better than that of the others;otherwise, (306)

from servers equal in all of the above, choose the server whoselowest-tier cache ease-of-entry is better than that of the others;otherwise, (308)

from servers equal in all of the above, choose the server whose misstraffic is lower (in percentage of capacity) than that of the others;otherwise, (310)

from servers equal in all of the above, choose a server whose streamingtraffic is lower (in percentage of capacity) than or equal to that ofthe others. (312)

The selected server becomes that title's one and only preferred server.

Referring to FIG. 4:

Definitions:

The “global pool” of servers is the aggregate collection of serverssharing a front-side switch or network.

A server is “least-busy” or “most-busy” based on its streaming load (in% of its own streaming capacity, i.e. not necessarily in absolutestreams or sessions) compared to that of other servers.

A server is “full” if its streaming capacity, or other criticalresource, is saturated (potentially incapable of adequately handling anadditional stream).

A title is “hot” if it is the most active title for one of the servers(see Stream Director: Server state: above).

A title is “novel” if it has an empty preferred servers list, i.e. ithas no preferred server.

A title is “familiar” if it has at least one preferred server that isnot “full”.

A title is “crowded” if all of its preferred servers are “full”.

“replication” is defined as the addition of a server to a title'snon-empty preferred-servers list.

A title has “cooled” if it has more than one server on itspreferred-servers list, but it is no longer “hot” (does not show up asthe most-active title for any of the servers).

Actions:

If all servers in the “global pool” are “full”, reject any streamrequest; otherwise, perform one or more of the following actions. (402)

Direct a stream requesting a “novel” title to the least-busy server inthe global pool; add that server to the requested title's“preferred-servers” list. (404, 406)

Direct a stream requesting a “familiar” title to the least-busy serverfrom the requested title's preferred-servers list. (416, 418)

Direct a stream requesting a “crowded” title to the least busy server inthe global pool; if, and ONLY if, the title is “hot”, “replicate” thetitle by adding the least-busy server to the title's preferred-serverslist. (408, 410, 412, 414)

Check each title periodically (every ‘n’ minutes? or ‘n’ sessionstarts?) for an opportunity to remove some servers from its preferredlist. If a title has “cooled”, and at least one of the servers on itslist is not full, remove the “most-busy” of the servers on the title'spreferred-servers list. Also, at known low-demand points in each 24-hourperiod, the preferred-servers lists of all the titles may be cleared orinitialized.

Those having skill in the art will appreciate that there are variousvehicles by which processes and/or systems described herein may beeffected (e.g., hardware, software, and/or firmware), and that thepreferred vehicle will vary with the context in which the processes aredeployed. For example, if an implementer determines that speed andaccuracy are paramount, the implementer may opt for a hardware and/orfirmware vehicle; alternatively, if flexibility is paramount, theimplementer may opt for a solely software implementation; or, yet againalternatively, the implementer may opt for some combination of hardware,software, and/or firmware. Hence, there are several possible vehicles bywhich the processes described herein may be effected, none of which isinherently superior to the other in that any vehicle to be utilized is achoice dependent upon the context in which the vehicle may be deployedand the specific concerns (e.g., speed, flexibility, or predictability)of the implementer, any of which may vary. Those skilled in the art willrecognize that optical aspects of implementations may involveoptically-oriented hardware, software, and or firmware.

The foregoing detailed description has set forth various embodiments ofthe devices and/or processes via the use of block diagrams, flowcharts,and/or examples. Insofar as such block diagrams, flowcharts, and/orexamples contain one or more functions and/or operations, it may beunderstood as notorious by those within the art that each functionand/or operation within such block diagrams, flowcharts, or examples maybe implemented, individually and/or collectively, by a wide range ofhardware, software, firmware, or virtually any combination thereof.Several portions of the subject matter described herein may beimplemented via Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), FieldProgrammable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors (DSPs), orother integrated formats. However, those skilled in the art willrecognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein, inwhole or in part, may be equivalently implemented in standard integratedcircuits, as one or more computer programs running on one or morecomputers (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more computersystems), as one or more programs running on one or more processors(e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more microprocessors),as firmware, or as virtually any combination thereof, and that designingthe circuitry and/or writing the code for the software and/or firmwarewould be well within the skill of one of skill in the art in light ofthis disclosure. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciatethat the mechanisms of the subject matter described herein are capableof being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, andthat an illustrative embodiment of the subject matter described hereinapplies equally regardless of the particular type of signal bearingmedia used to actually carry out the distribution. Examples of a signalbearing media include, but are not limited to, the following: recordabletype media such as floppy disks, hard disk drives, CD ROMs, digitaltape, and computer memory; and transmission type media such as digitaland analog communication links using TDM or IP based communication links(e.g., packet links).

In a general sense, those skilled in the art will recognize that thevarious aspects described herein which may be implemented, individuallyand/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, orany combination thereof may be viewed as being composed of various typesof “electrical circuitry.” Consequently, as used herein “electricalcircuitry” includes, but is not limited to, electrical circuitry havingat least one discrete electrical circuit, electrical circuitry having atleast one integrated circuit, electrical circuitry having at least oneapplication specific integrated circuit, electrical circuitry forming ageneral purpose computing device configured by a computer program (e.g.,a general purpose computer configured by a computer program which atleast partially carries out processes and/or devices described herein,or a microprocessor configured by a computer program which at leastpartially carries out processes and/or devices described herein),electrical circuitry forming a memory device (e.g., forms of randomaccess memory), and/or electrical circuitry forming a communicationsdevice (e.g., a modem, communications switch, or optical-electricalequipment).

Those skilled in the art will recognize that it is common within the artto describe devices and/or processes in the fashion set forth herein,and thereafter use standard engineering practices to integrate suchdescribed devices and/or processes into larger systems. That is, atleast a portion of the devices and/or processes described herein may beintegrated into a network processing system via a reasonable amount ofexperimentation.

The foregoing described aspects depict different components containedwithin, or connected with, different other components. It is to beunderstood that such depicted architectures are merely exemplary, andthat in fact many other architectures may be implemented which achievethe same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement ofcomponents to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated”such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any twocomponents herein combined to achieve a particular functionality may beseen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionalityis achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components.Likewise, any two components so associated may also be viewed as being“operably connected”, or “operably coupled”, to each other to achievethe desired functionality.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of selecting a stream server of aplurality of stream servers to which to direct a content title, themethod comprising: (a) evaluating a cache ease-of-entry for each of aplurality of levels of a cache hierarchy for the plurality of streamservers; and (b) selecting the stream server from the plurality ofstream servers to receive a content title, the selected stream serverhaving a most favorable cache ease-of-entry over the plurality of levelsof the cache hierarchy; (c) if none of the plurality of stream servershas a most favorable cache ease-of-entry over the plurality of levels ofthe cache hierarchy, selecting a stream server of the plurality ofstream servers with a lowest miss traffic to which to direct the title;and (d) if none of the plurality of stream servers has a lowest misstraffic, selecting a stream server of the plurality of stream serverswith a lowest stream traffic to which to direct the title.
 2. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: setting the selected stream server as aone-and-only preferred server for the content title.
 3. A streamdirector configured to interface to a plurality of stream servers and toselect a stream server of a plurality of stream servers to which todirect a content title, the stream director further configured to: (a)evaluate a cache ease-of-entry for each of a plurality of levels of acache hierarchy for the plurality of stream servers; and (b) select thestream server from the plurality of stream servers to receive a contenttitle, the selected stream server having a most favorable cacheease-of-entry over the plurality of levels of the cache hierarchy; (c)if none of the plurality of stream servers has a most favorable cacheease-of-entry over the plurality of levels of the cache hierarchy,select a stream server of the plurality of stream servers with a lowestmiss traffic to which to direct the title; and (d) if none of theplurality of stream servers has a lowest miss traffic, select a streamserver of the plurality of stream servers with a lowest stream trafficto which to direct the title.
 4. The stream server of claim 3, furtherconfigured to: set the selected stream server as a one-and-onlypreferred server for the content title.
 5. A method of selecting astream server of a plurality of stream servers to which to direct acontent title, the method comprising: (a) comparing a top-tier cacheease of entry for each of the plurality of stream servers; (b) if one ofthe plurality of stream servers has a more favorable top-tier cache easeof entry than each of the other stream servers, selecting the one streamserver with the more favorable top-tier cache ease of entry to which todirect the title; (c) if the top-tier cache ease of entry for all of theplurality of stream servers is equal, comparing a next-lower-tier cacheease of entry for each of the plurality of stream servers; (d) if one ofthe plurality of stream servers has a more favorable next-lower-tiercache ease of entry than each of the other stream servers, selecting theone stream server with the more favorable next-lower-tier cache ease ofentry to which to direct the title; (e) if none of the plurality ofstream servers has a most favorable cache ease-of-entry over a pluralityof levels of a cache hierarchy, selecting a stream server of theplurality of stream servers with a lowest miss traffic to which todirect the title; and (f) if none of the plurality of stream servers hasa lowest miss traffic, selecting a stream server of the plurality ofstream servers with a lowest stream traffic to which to direct thetitle.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: (g) if thenext-lower-tier cache ease of entry for all of the plurality streamservers is equal, comparing a lowest-tier cache ease of entry for eachof the plurality of stream servers; and (h) if one of the plurality ofstream servers has a more favorable lowest-tier cache ease of entry thaneach of the other stream servers, selecting the one stream server withthe most favorable lowest-tier cache ease of entry to which to directthe title.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: (i) if thelowest tier cache ease of entry for all of the stream servers is equal,comparing miss traffic for each of the plurality of stream servers; and(j) if one of the plurality of stream servers has a lower miss trafficthan each of the other stream servers, selecting the one stream serverwith the lower miss traffic to which to direct the title.
 8. The methodof claim 7, further comprising: (i) if the miss traffic for all of thestream servers is equal, comparing stream traffic for each of theplurality of stream servers; and (j) selecting a stream server with alowest stream traffic to which to direct the title.
 9. The method ofclaim 5, further comprising: setting the selected stream server as aone-and-only preferred stream server for the content title.
 10. Acontent streaming system, comprising: a plurality of content servers;and a stream director; the stream director configured to (a) compare atop-tier cache ease of entry for each of the plurality of streamservers; (b) if one of the plurality of stream servers has a morefavorable top-tier cache ease of entry than each of the other streamservers, select the one stream server with the more favorable top-tiercache ease of entry to which to direct the title; and (c) if thetop-tier cache ease of entry for each of the plurality of stream serversis equal, compare a next-lower-tier cache ease of entry for each of theplurality of stream servers; (d) if one of the plurality of streamservers has a more favorable next-lower-tier cache ease of entry thaneach of the other stream servers, select the one stream server with themore favorable next-lower-tier cache ease of entry to which to directthe title; (e) if none of the plurality of stream servers has a mostfavorable cache ease-of-entry over a plurality of levels of a cachehierarchy, select a stream server of the plurality of stream serverswith a lowest miss traffic to which to direct the title; and (f) if noneof the plurality of stream servers has a lowest miss traffic, select astream server of the plurality of stream servers with a lowest streamtraffic to which to direct the title.
 11. The system of claim 10, thestream director further configured to: (g) if the next-lower-tier cacheease of entry for all of the plurality stream servers is equal, comparea lowest-tier cache ease of entry for each of the plurality of streamservers; and (h) if one of the plurality of stream servers has a morefavorable lowest-tier cache ease of entry than each of the other streamservers, select the one stream server with the most favorablelowest-tier cache ease of entry to which to direct the title.
 12. Thesystem of claim 11, the stream director further configured to: (i) ifthe lowest tier cache ease of entry for all of the stream servers isequal, compare miss traffic for each of the plurality of stream servers;and (j) if one of the plurality of stream servers has a lower misstraffic than each of the other stream servers, select the one streamserver with the lower miss traffic to which to direct the title.
 13. Thesystem of claim 12, the stream director further configured to: (k) ifthe miss traffic for all of the stream servers is equal, comparingstream traffic for each of the plurality of stream servers; and (l)selecting a stream server with a lowest stream traffic to which todirect the title.
 14. The system of claim 10, the stream directorfurther configured to set the selected server as a one-and-onlypreferred server for the content title.